The first and most important note is that copywriting a learned skill. It is very similar to exercising a muscle. When you go to the gym, do push-ups, lift weights, your muscles get stronger. Likewise, you should exercise your copywriting muscles if you want to become a better copywriter.

What are the seven exercises you can use to strengthen your copywriting muscles?

1. Create a separate email address just for learning

It should not be your primary email address, but the address you will use exclusively for subscription, i.e. subscribing to various lists to receive notifications, information and free materials.

Let's say, I use Gmail and what's nice about it is that it offers an option to filter messages. You can literally create a filter for any topic or author. Something similar to creating a separate folder for each topic on your computer.

It's a way to gradually and easily build your email archive of other people's work. When you collect different emails, from different people, from different pages, you have your inspiration and learning material clearly in one place. 

There is no need to use your main email address, because you would be overwhelmed by hundreds of emails every day. Create a separate account and simply open it when it's time to study.

2. Visit the site swiped.co

There you will find many different swipe files and sales texts, and among them it would be useful to single out the so-called control works. Control works are works from the field of marketing that have proven to lead to conversion, i.e. sales. Works that have proven to bring profit.

Look for them and save them, you can also print them if it will be more clear for you. Highlight the key elements in them. Mark the title, the storytelling part, the guarantee... Analyze everything, because it is the masterwork of other people. A work to emulate.

Through this analysis, you will better understand what it is that makes a copy really good, what it is in practice because of. You can copy any title you like, e.g. in one Word file, it's nice to organize them. That's how you build your own little virtual library. It will serve you for ideas in the future.

3. Talk to end users

This is so simple, and it gives amazing results. When a client contacts you and hires you to write copy, one of the first things you should ask is, "Hey, can I talk to one of your customers?" You'd be shocked how many entrepreneurs and business owners fail to ask these questions. How many of them don't talk to their customers at all. 

Ask for the contact information of your client's best customers and talk to them. Ask them why they decided to cooperate with your client's company. What motivated them to buy from them? Why didn't they go to the competition? In most cases, you will find out everything that way.

Maybe they liked the quality of the service, the brand itself, how a certain product works. When you find out why customers are unlearning your client, go to him and ask him if he knows why people buy from him. They will say that it is for reasons A, B or C, and you will say - no. Because you have heard the real reasons directly from the customer and you will know that they are buying there for X, Y or Z.

The client will tell you: "Man, you are a genius! How did I not know that about my customers!?”, and you will just smile sweetly and answer: “Well, because you didn't ask”. 

As a copywriter, you need to take the obvious and craft your message accordingly. Talk to four or five people and find out what their reasons are for buying from a particular brand. Chances are, other people would buy from that brand for those very same reasons!

Create a marketing message accordingly, release it to the market and you will see results. You'll look like a hero to your clients. It's not all about writing. There's a lot to research, to understanding the customer - and most people don't bother to do that at all.

4. Ask for feedback

This is actually a tip Gary Halbert, one of the world's best copywriters, from whose example you can learn a lot. Gary once practiced an exercise. When he finishes writing some marketing text, he goes to a coffee shop, some public place and shows the local people what he wrote.

He gave people his lyrics and asked them what they thought. If they say: "It's good" or "Super, extra"... That means it is trash. That means nothing is wrong. 

That's not the reaction you want.

If when they read your text they say: "And where can I buy that?" or "I really need this!", and then you already have something. 

Show your work to people, even those who may not be your ideal customers. Let them take a look, let them give you some feedback. Because it will give you information from a new angle, something you may not have been aware of, something you may not have even thought about!

Be sure to check if there is anything that is unclear to the general public. Maybe you use some terms that you think everyone understands, but the average person actually has no idea what you're talking about. It is important that people understand your message, that they understand exactly what each part of it means. Distance yourself a little from what you do and what you sell. This is how you will best convey your message to your ideal audience.

5. Read aloud

Once you've written your copy, go to a quiet room. Your bedroom or living room, somewhere where no one is and read your copy out loud. When you write a text, a page, a post, an email - always read it out loud to yourself first. That way you will notice if there are any parts that just don't fit, that are disturbing flow of the rest of the text, they don't sound natural, etc.

If something sounds unnatural to you while reading aloud, it will certainly sound unnatural to your reader. Edit any segment that gets stuck. Maybe a word sounds too complicated, maybe it will confuse people. Replace it with a word that is easier to understand. This is a great way to improve your writing.

6. Manually copy other people's work 

This is probably one of the most important exercises. However, so many people have heard about this and unfortunately do not put it into practice at all. Maybe he hates them too much, a thing of laziness. However, the exercise is very effective. Take verified posts, articles, marketing texts and rewrite everything - word for word - in your own hand. Handwritten. No computer, no typing. Just good old paper and pen. Why?

Because that's how you reprogram your nervous system. You are learning. There's something about having the words slip through your fingers. Writing activates a different part of the brain than typing. Maybe it seems stupid and unnecessary, too slow... It's much faster to type everything, right?

But that way you won't get the desired results.

Just write, copy. And the same text several times. After a few times, something will just click for you. You will begin to complete sentences on your own. It's a very unusual experience that probably doesn't sound useful to you right now, but you have to try it. You have to experience it yourself.

Something will simply click in you and you will suddenly enter psychology, the mental state of a copywriter. You will write and suddenly you will understand what the original writer was thinking about, what idea he was guided by while composing that text. Since you are trying to imitate experienced copywriters in some way, you will soon pick up their voices. It will be like downloading their writing style into your brain. A very crazy feeling.

This, of course, can take some time. It may take several months until you experience your "Aha!" a moment. But that's the way to become a really good copywriter. Look up to copywriting masters and learn from them. Rewrite their texts 5, 10, 20 times, until it clicks for you.

7. Write every day

If you plan to become a professional copywriter, this is what separates you from an amateur. An amateur sees writing as a hobby. Imagine for example to play tennis from time to time, when you feel like it - then you are an amateur tennis player. If you're a professional tennis player, you do it all the time. Also, of course, you get paid to do it, but the point is that it has become a key part of your lifestyle.

So you can't be a good writer if you don't write every day. It doesn't matter if it's just five minutes or 10, 20, 30 minutes a day. Let's make it 30 minutes a day. In the morning, in the evening, it doesn't matter when. But devote 30 minutes a day to writing. The more you write, the faster and easier your writing will be.

In the beginning you may need, e.g. three hours to compose a good ad, a good email. It will go faster if you write more and more. Soon it will turn into two hours, then one and eventually you will be proficient enough to write a very good email in just 5, 10 minutes. Because everything is a matter of practice. Copywriting is a learned skill.

Our team is oriented towards creating sales-oriented websites, which also includes copywriting services. Of course, if you want a site on which you will write the texts yourself, we are here to help with the technical parts and jointly create the best strategy for you. More about our way of working read here.

Source: youtube.com/DanLok